Former big-game boss: Climate signs are subtle

The Rocky

Published September 24, 2008 at 3:04 p.m.
Updated September 24, 2008 at 3:04 p.m.

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While Colorado hunters and environmentalists are uniting like never before in worrying about the habitat loss that can come with climate change, the signs so far are subtle.

John Ellenberger, of Grand Junction, who is retired now but used to be the state's big-game manager, said he hasn't yet seen any definite trends in, say, less snow in higher elevations.

"In the areas that I hunt elk, there's a lot of season to season variation," he said. "You go from one year of having bluebird weather where you wish you had a bit of snow to the next where you have so much snow you can't get to where you want to hunt."

He has, though, seen more variations in weather, longer dry periods, bigger fluctuations, and does believe that global warming is affecting Colorado's climate.

"It seems like 30 or 40 years ago, the situation was more gradual," Ellenberger said. "We either were going into a drought period and things gradually got drier and drier, or it went in the opposite direction.

"Now, it seems like it is all over the place — there are not patterns, just very erratic."

He noted that elk are very adaptable, moving to lower elevations as houses go up in their traditional habitat.

And he points out that 40 years ago, Colorado's big-game manager predicted that the elk population of 50,000 likely wouldn't get any larger because the animals were being crowded out by development.

Now, there are about 280,000 elk in the state.

Still, he worries about species such as cheat grass, that thrive during warmer and drier seasons, and can edge out the sagebrushes that elk depend on for winter forage.

If more warm and dry seasons are a part of Colorado's future, that can mean less high quality winter range for elk and deer, and in turn could mean fewer opportunities for hunters, he said.

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